To destroy property, leave people homeless and evict them from their lands, the agenda started from Jammu, finally reaching Kashmir, Pehalgam z on target, Mamal, Wangidara, Lidroo, etc., various houses and Kothas of GB people hv been destroyed by Forest Deptfs pic.twitter.com/js0gfZAugU
– Zahid Parwaz Choudhary (@ZahidParwaz) November 13, 2020
Earlier this week, a video that appeared to show a demolition campaign by the Jammu and Kashmir government went viral on social media. Government officials attacked makeshift huts used by people from the nomadic Gujjar community in the village of Mamal in the Pahalgam Hills in southern Kashmir.
Gujjar activists said the houses were empty at the time, as Gujjar families living there had come to Jammu for the winter. They use these huts as shelter when they return to the pastures of the Kashmir Valley in summer. Gujjar activists say these makeshift huts existed for decades and the authorities had never touched them before.
On November 15, after the videos caused a sensation in the Valley, the leader of the People’s Democratic Party, Mehbooba Mufti, visited the area and warned the central government against such demolition campaigns, which targeted nomadic communities that were “Guardians of the forests”. He accused the government of expelling Muslim occupiers from land in both Jammu and Kashmir to hand over to industries.
On November 7, the government of Jammu and Kashmir had issued a statement that a team consisting of staff from the Pahalgam Development Authority, the Department of Wildlife, Revenue and Forests, the municipal committee and the police had “launched a campaign against encroachment on Mamal Pahalgam and illegally recovered 110 kanals invaded [5.6 hectares] of forest land “.
The statement continued: “The team demolished illegal huts, Dokas [wooden shacks] and fenced in said land. “He added that such campaigns would continue” all state / forest lands will be recovered. ”
The demolition campaign is part of a recent push to reclaim state lands from unauthorized occupation. About a month ago, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court declared the Jammu and Kashmir State Lands (Acquisition of Property from Occupants) Act 2001, popularly known as the Roshni Act, unconstitutional.
The law had allowed the government to grant property rights to state lands to those who occupied them, for a fee to be determined by the government. The proceeds from such transactions were to finance energy projects in Jammu and Kashmir. In its ruling, the court ordered that all state lands that are under unauthorized occupation be recovered.
On October 31, the government of the Union Territory also ordered the revenue department to “develop the modalities and plan the eviction of the invaders from said state lands and to recover the state lands within a period of six months.”
The Roshni trial and the government’s eviction campaigns have left thousands of poor families from the nomadic communities of Gujjar and Bakarwal in an even more precarious condition than before. In recent years, eviction campaigns in Jammu have already displaced many of these families. Operation Pahalgam suggests that they have now entered the Valley.
On November 15, another video, which appeared to show an eviction campaign in the Rajouri district of Jammu, appeared on social media. Scroll could not independently confirm the authenticity of the video.
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